Paper quilt for Chrissy

It was Chrissy's birthday in early December. I started making this a few days beforehand in the vague belief that I could at least get it posted by her birthday. And then I was finding it all took more time and thought than I'd anticipated, and Christmas preparations began to intrude. And sometimes I just sat there and looked at it for a while and couldn't see what I should do next.

But finally, I finished it this morning. And I am really pleased with it. I think this is harder to let go of than Maggi's was. So, why don't I make one for myself? Somehow, half the satisfaction is the fact that it is a gift I am making, and I don't know if I could ever finish one for myself, or whether I would be as exacting - I suspect
some 'that will do' might creep in!

Maybe making one of these for me should be my New Year's Resolution....



This is all made from heavy weight watercolour paper, some cut into pieces and some torn, then sprayed with various metallic colourwashes - a combination of Radiant Rain and those from Outside the Margins. I used about half of the papers I sprayed. I never know what shape these quilts will be until I see the papers together - Maggi's was about A4, this one is about 7 inches wide by about15 inches tall.



Some detail of the top section. As you can see, some of the papers were put through Cuttlebug folders in my Wizard after spraying. The fibre down the left was sent to me in a bag of fibres -I wish I could remember where from because it is lovely - 'raw' space dyed fleece threaded through one of the new 'ladder type' synthetic yarns - and I would love some more of it because this was about 3/4 of what I had, but the colours and texture were perfect for this piece.

The small tags on the left were punched from a handmade background (thanks, Trish!), attached with brads, and the little starry things were coloured using alcohol inks, then attached to the tags with different coloured brads. The gold skeleton leaf has a coating of Jo Sonya gold dust, giving it sparkle. The flowers were two layers punched from black/gold pearlescent card, curled using a ball tool, and attached using brads. The elements down the right hand side of the piece are small flowers punched from the same handmade background paper, with small pieces of dark copper organza behind them, again attached with brads. A quick zap with a heat gun curled the organza up into interesting little cup shapes.


The squares above and below the main image are gold plastic sequins - Guterman - attached with gold thread through organza ribbon, with a pearlised cream bead holding the whole thing together. The image is cut from an old calendar page with beautiful images painted by Helena Nelson-Reed. I painted over it with soft gel medium, immediately gave it a second coat at 90 degrees - this gives the effect of it being woven fabric - then added a little more gel at the corners and stamped into it. A very light touching of Treasure Gold wax over the whole thing picks up the high points and gives a lovely effect (thanks for discovering and sharing that, Karen!). the image was mounted onto dark red card, then given a 'frame' of gold embossing powder. Both edges of the side pieces were also edged with gold embossing powder.


The bottom section has 3 squares of the same handmade background, overstamped in Galaxy Gold Brilliance ink, attached with gold thread, with shell buttons sewn on top, the hands are made from air dry clay in Krafty Lady moulds (in Zeb's studio in October '07), painted gold with acrylic paint and then coloured with Treasure Gold Onyxite. Not that I hoard things in my stash, you understand, I just keep things until i find the perfect use for them. Sometimes a long time after I acquire them.

I really enjoyed making this piece, even though it sat on my table for 5 weeks, and I hope Chrissy likes it too.